José S. speaking:

This picture was taken at house of a friend when I was 15 years old. In that house was living José José and I never would have expected to get to know him that day. Neither did I like so much José José, but anyway they took the picture.

Years later, I started to get into music and to compose, and it’s then that I gave more care to the photo, because he is like a music icon here in Mexico. Overall, it is because of his songs - even though he wasn’t the one writing them - he was interpreting them in a very particular way and that’s how you would recognize him. I think that there is probably not one minute when there is no one in Mexico listening to a song of him, I mean that it is playing all the time. It’s like Juan Gabriel’s songs; it’s being played all the time.

In addition, the friend who gave it to me, the one that took the picture that day, is a very good friend of mine and it makes me think of that time, of the time that I spent with her. So this is for me the value of that object. It has been taken in 93, it’s been 16 years and she kept it in her plastic wrap, because I don’t have the negative, the camera was hers, she took the picture and gave it to me. I don’t think that the negative still exists, so then that is the reason why I kept it.

They call him the Prince of song, because we can say that he is like the Frank Sinatra for Mexico. He was the singer, not the composer but an interpret that marked a complete era. He has about 200 or 300 songs like Gavilán o Paloma, El triste, that he sang at the OTI festival. He also has a particular life because he got a lot of fame starting at a young age and it is fame that got him lost in the end. So he ended up alcoholic, losing all of his money and all of him fame, in the taxis at Tlahuac drinking, like a homeless person, and he lost his voice. They say it’s because of the cortisone that he used when he couldn’t sing, to open up his throat. He use to have a beautiful voice, this is what is left on his recordings and it is impressive.

 

 

I like many of his songs, one in particular that I like very much is called Voy a llenarte toda, that he sings to a woman, and he tells her that he going to cover her with kisses all over and caresses. I like it because I saw a video about José José in Acapulco, singing that song, and everybody was going crazy and they started to throw flowers to him, many flowers. The lyrics of the song says: “I am going to fill you up, all over and slowly, little by little with my kisses”. It’s too romantic, and I like it very much, but all of the other songs too. It’s funny, because it’s not for people of my age. Curiously, this kind of music pleases another kind of public, that are like 50 years old, in the cantinas, I mean it’s the typical music for the bars.

But nevertheless, there is also a tribute to José José few years ago, maybe 10 years, with Molotov and all these new bands, because he truly marked too much our generation. And look, I have a friend who is a musician, and he likes rock music, alternative as well, I mean all English music and a little while ago, we were in my house and I had my Mp3 player, and he told me: “Yes, it’s really good, the more I grow up and the more I like it.” And it’s funny for me because I would have never imagined that him - who likes alternative music - would ever like José José. And, finally, he does.